History YMMV / PokemonRumble

* BrokenAesop: The typical Pokémon moral is that you should love and take care of your Pokémon, not just abandoning Mons once they're weak and trading up for stronger Mons. Rumble pretty much requires you to abandon your weaker Mons and trade up for stronger Mons in order to pass, treating your Pokémon as tools.

** Pokémon with moves that give them the Reprisal status[[note]]Mirror Coat, Counter, Bide, Metal Burst, and Spiky Shield[[/note]] can't damage you directly, but they will reflect any and all damage onto your mons. Dealing a huge amount of damage to them will most likely knock out or at least severely dent your Pokémon, so you have to tiptoe around them to be sure not to damage them on accident, lest you accidentally commit suicide. Special mention goes to Kricketot, who are so frail that anything that hits them super-effectively will likely deal thousands of damage to it (and you as well), and Chestnaught, who infest one of the late-game Battle Royales in ''World''.

** In contrast to their [[ThatOneAttack fearsome]] [[TierInducedScrappy reputations]] in the main series, entry hazard moves such as Stealth Rock are pitifully weak here. In the case of Stealth Rock and Spikes, they've been relegated to fixed damage moves a la Sonic Boom and Dragon Rage. They barely deal any damage as a result, and seemingly exist only to get replaced with stronger moves. Toxic Spikes only has it slightly better, as it inflicts poison from afar. However, it's vastly outclassed by Toxic, which has a better overall range and inflicts the stronger badly poisoned status.

* NightmareFuel: ''Rumble Blast's'' final boss, which [[spoiler:is a rusted key that controls Pokémon]]. Despite [[spoiler:not being a Pokémon]], it gets its own cry! Said cry sounds like the screams of the damned.

** Pokémon with moves that give them the Reprisal status[[note]]Mirror Coat, Counter, Bide, and Spiky Shield[[/note]] can't damage you directly, but they will reflect any and all damage onto your mons. Dealing a huge amount of damage to them will most likely knock out or at least severely dent your Pokémon, so you have to tiptoe around them to be sure not to damage them on accident, lest you accidentally commit suicide. Special mention goes to Kricketot, who are so frail that anything that hits them super-effectively will likely deal thousands of damage to it (and you as well), and Chestnaught, who infest one of the late-game Battle Royales in ''World''.

*** Serperior is a textbook case of HitboxDissonance, as both Leaf Blade and Giga Drain have deceptively large hitboxes in addition to the latter providing healing for the Regal Pokémon. Making matters worse is that it's flanked by [[GoddamnedBats Servine]], who ''will'' lower your attack speed with Leaf Tornado and/or send you into a CycleOfHurting by flinching you to death. Serperior was mercifully {{Nerf}}ed in ''World'' with much smaller hitboxes on both of its attacks, though it still keeps its Servine lackeys.

*** Reshiram uses Blue Flares that hit very hard and home in on your every movement. You'd best be standing far away from those things when they start to fire if you don't want to get barbecued; get hit by one and the rest will follow in quick succession. The only way to alleviate this is by either having a Fire-weak Pokémon with the Effective trait (which lets it avoid super effective moves) or a Kyogre with a Blue Orb, which has an innate immunity to Fire attacks.

** Supersonic Ninja Tricks from ''World'' ticks almost all the boxes for a ridiculously difficult mission. First it's timed and it's long at 5 sections (most missions up to this point had 4 sections), secondly the ninja doesn't stick to any one type of Pokémon so you'll be dealing with a motley crew of Pokémon with different types and status abnormalities. The Pokémon kick in the nuts though is the ninja themself. They set up cage boobytraps to hold you in place, freeze rays that freeze your Pokémon to hold them in place, and bombs that slow you down. The bosses? Thundurus and Tornadus, two Legendary Pokémon that hit hard. Thundurus causes paralysis with all of its attacks and Tornadus uses tailwind to buff everyone's speed! As you're fighting them you again have to deal with the ninja hindering your every move with three freeze rays and respawning cage traps making this a real headache to get through.
* VindicatedByHistory: Not the games themselves, but rather the SuperDeformed art style used for the Toy Pokémon, as many people have found them to be UglyCute. Even moreso for otherwise fierce Pokémon like the Creation Trio, especially when they act all happy and adorable with your Mii in ''World''.

** Supersonic Ninja Tricks from ''World'' ticks almost all the boxes for a ridiculously difficult mission. First it's timed and it's long at 5 sections (most missions up to this point had 4 sections), secondly the ninja doesn't stick to any one type of Pokémon so you'll be dealing with a motley crew of Pokémon with different types and status abnormalities. The Pokémon kick in the nuts though is the ninja themself. They set up cage boobytraps to hold you in place, freeze rays that freeze your Pokémon to hold them in place, and bombs that slow you down. The bosses? Thundurus and Tornadus, two Legendary Pokémon that hit hard. Thundurus causes paralysis with all of its attacks and Tornadus uses tailwind to buff everyone's speed! As you're fighting them you again have to deal with the ninja hindering your every move with three freeze rays and respawning cage traps making this a real headache to get through.

** While Groudon's Precipice Blades manifests in ''Rumble World'' as Earth Power on steroids, poor Kyogre got shafted with Origin Pulse. While it looks like an explosive homing attack at first a la Searing Shot or Blue Flare, in reality it's a rather weak attack that simply has a large, but imprecise range. It's thoroughly outclassed by Surf as an AreaOfEffect attack and by Hydro Pump in the damage department. The only way the player could salvage the move is if they were lucky enough to get a Kyogre with Boomer+ at the ''minimum''.

* ScrappyWeapon: In contrast to their [[ThatOneAttack fearsome]] [[TierInducedScrappy reputations]] in the main series, entry hazard moves such as Stealth Rock are pitifully weak here. In the case of Stealth Rock and Spikes, they've been relegated to fixed damage moves a la Sonic Boom and Dragon Rage. They barely deal any damage as a result, and seemingly exist only to get replaced with stronger moves. Toxic Spikes only has it slightly better, as it inflicts poison from afar. However, it's vastly outclassed by Toxic, which has a better overall range and inflicts the stronger badly poisoned status.

** In ''Pokémon Rumble Blast'':

*** Slurpuff, armed with a swarm of infinitely respawning Swirlix that use Play Nice (which homes in, stuns you every time one hits you and decreases your attack power) and Wish, a move that can regenerate its health. Then factor in the time limit when facing it in the "Restaurant Opening" challenge. And if you thought that was annoying, wait until you're trying to ''catch'' it.

*** Manaphy. Its main annoyance is Aqua Ring, which heals her by significant amounts, and it actually ''waits'' until Aqua Ring is over to use it again. Like Sylveon, however, this essentially gives it infinite health, giving you an infinite time to wobble it.

*** When it comes to capturing boss-Pokémon, Mienshao makes one of the most difficult captures of the game. It's impossible to wobble because it uses Protect (which makes Pokémon invincible in the ''Rumble'' games) right before it goes into its cooldown phase, rendering it impossible for you to score any hits on it. Your only hope in capturing it is to hope it's sparkling when you meet it, cross your fingers when you defeat it, or bring a Pokémon with Feint. Chesnaught does almost the same thing, except it carries Spiky Shield, which damages your Pokémon when you try to hit it.
*** Terrakion is decently powerful, as it packs both the wide-reaching Sacred Sword and the PowerfulButInaccurate Stone Edge. What pushes it into TOB territory are its Marowak {{Mooks}}. They're bulky, difficult to OHKO, and spam Bonemarang, a long-lasting ranged attack that deals a good chunk of damage and flinches you. It's stupidly easy to get stuck in a cycle of flinching after accidentally walking into a Bonemarang before getting finished off by Terrakion.
*** Shaymin. Its secondary attack is none other than Seed Flare, a powerful shockwave that prevents you from getting close to it, lest you take a hefty chunk of damage and have your Defense lowered. Its mooks are the dreaded Whimsicott, who can and will force you into a CycleOfHurting with their flinching and confusing Hurricanes. And that's just its Land Forme; Sky Forme has higher Attack, STAB Air Slash in place of Energy Ball, and a much higher walk speed.

*** Shaymin. Its main attack is none other than Seed Flare, a powerful shockwave that prevents you from getting close to it, lest you take a hefty chunk of damage and have your Defense lowered. Its mooks are none other than the dreaded Whimsicott, who can and will force you into a CycleOfHurting with their flinching and confusing Hurricanes. And that's just its Land Forme; Sky Forme has higher Attack and is significantly faster.

* GoddamnedBats: Several Pokémon have moves that hit from a distance and cause the target to flinch, sometimes inflicting a status condition on the side. Even weaker Pokémon with these moves can be quite threatening, especially in high numbers. These include, but are not limited to: Anything with Confusion, Hippopotas with Sand Tomb, Raichu with Thunderbolt and Wailmer with Whirlpool. The worst of these is easily Servine, who can lower your Hit Ratio (which determines how fast you use a move) while flinching you to death.

*** Serperior. Not only is it decently fast, it also carries Leaf Blade, which hits hard and [[HitboxDissonance far]]. Additionally, it is flanked by Leaf Tornado-spamming Servines that can and will lower your Hit Ratio, and also has Giga Drain to recover any damage it may have recieved.

** Shaymin. Its strong attack is none other than Seed Flare, a powerful shockwave that prevents you from getting close to it, lest you take a hefty chunk of damage and have your Defense lowered. Its mooks are none other than the dreaded Whimsicott, who can and will force you into a CycleOfHurting with their flinching and confusing Hurricanes. And that's just its Land Forme; Sky Forme has higher Attack and is significantly faster.
* ThatOneLevel: In general, the Battle Royales have you fighting waves after waves of enemies that always like to ZergRush you if you didn't act fast and the battles are TimedMission here. To make matters worse, the objectives typically require you to be a specific type only for you to find out that the Pokémon you are fighting against have type advantages against the type chosen by the objectives.
** Good luck trying to clear EX-6 in Rumble Blast. 'Every opponent' is a legendary Pokémon with extremely strong attacks, and the bosses of the Battle Royale are the three Deoxys formes... And ''Mewtwo''. And even if you manage to dodge all the attacks, there's a huge chance you run out of time since every Pokémon is [[DamageSpongeBoss absurdly bulky for some reason]] and will take a lot of time to kill. And if it wasn't bad enough, enemies can defeat other enemies which denies you opportunities for extra time...

* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: Imagine this situation in World. You're fighting a legendary, or some rare Pokemon that you've spent days or weeks trying to reach on the spinner (or just spent a few diamonds to use a Timing Stop), you're wondering if you can get it this time, and... (shattering noise! Whir, whir, whir...) holy crap, it's wobbling!
* NightmareFuel: ''Rumble Blast's'' final boss, which [[spoiler:is a rusted key that controls Pokemon]]. Despite [[spoiler:not being a Pokemon]], it gets its own cry! Said cry sounds like the screams of the damned.

** A major flaw that's inherent with the Toy Pokemon of this series is that they cannot increase their power level due to not being able to grow or improve by collecting EXP. They're doomed to become obsolete and replaced by stronger Pokemon that are caught later on in the game. This is especially frustrating if it's a Pokémon with great moves and a useful Special Trait that ends up being replaced.

*** When it comes to capturing boss-Pokemon, Mienshao makes one of the most difficult captures of the game. It's impossible to wobble because it uses Protect (which makes Pokemon invincible in the ''Rumble'' games) right before it goes into its cooldown phase, rendering it impossible for you to score any hits on it. Your only hope in capturing it is to hope it's sparkling when you meet it, cross your fingers when you defeat it, or bring a Pokemon with Feint. Chesnaught does almost the same thing, except it carries Spiky Shield, which damages your Pokémon when you try to hit it.

* ThatOneLevel: In general, the Battle Royales have you fighting waves after waves of enemies that always like to ZergRush you if you didn't act fast and the battles are TimedMission here. To make matters worse, the objectives typically require you to be a specific type only for you to find out that the pokemon you are fighting against have type advantages against the type chosen by the objectives.

** Any King Challenges in ''World'' can give you the headache if you don't have the required Power Level for your Toy Pokemon.

** A level following that has the player protecting Diancie, and all the Pokemon that appear target it, and ''only'' it, until you directly intervene. While one of the challenges has the player using supereffective Fairy attacks, those are viable against half the Pokemon in the level (Sneasel, Weavile, Purrloin, Liepard, Absol), with the rest as Normal and requiring a bit more effort. Did we mention that the Meowths all use Fake Out, which can flinchlock you and Diancie if sufficiently swarmed? ''[[SarcasmMode Joy.]]''

** The "Dark Four" challenge, also in ''World''. Even if you have a high enough Power Level so that most of the Mooks are easy to KO, there's still one problem: Your Mii. Like before, getting your Mii [=KO'd=] is an instant loss, but at least before you could try pushing them out of harm's way. Here your Mii is even more of a sitting duck than they are in the "Restaurant Opening" challenge as they stand frozen in place (with you unable to move them at all) in the center of the two arenas unable to do anything but toss buffs, and of course all the enemy Pokemon go after them instead of you. Speaking of which, all of the enemy Pokemon are capable of inflicting pretty much every movement-impairing status ailment in the game. (Such as sleeping, Confusion, or just straight up not moving.) Even you you somehow manage to move your Mii, they will instantly be teleported back to the center of the arena into harm's way. Think that's bad enough? The final boss of this challenge is Yveltal, who will happily ignore you in favor of your Mii, who in their frozen spot is just within range to be hit by Oblivion Wing. At that point it's pretty much a race to KO Yveltal before he completely drains your Mii's health bar, which will likely already be a good ways down from everything you faced before[[note]]Although if you have Heal Pulse or a similar attack, Yveltal's 1 damage per shot will mean nothing to your Mii.[[/note]] . (And Oblivion Wing restores Yveltal's health, too.) To top it all off, unless you're really fast, fulfilling all of the challenge's bonus conditions in one go is next to impossible. (Clear the battle in 180 seconds ''while also'' not destroying any forts, which means waiting for all the forts to empty out their Pokemon. It doesn't help that there's a several-second long delay between defeating one wave and the fort spitting out the next one, and the Joltik/Galvantula ones have about 5 or 6 waves apiece.)
** Supersonic Ninja Tricks from ''World'' ticks almost all the boxes for a ridiculously difficult mission. First it's timed and it's long at 5 sections (most missions up to this point had 4 sections), secondly the ninja doesn't stick to any one type of pokemon so you'll be dealing with a motley crew of pokemon with different types and status abnormalities. The true kick in the nuts though is the ninja themself. They set up cage boobytraps to hold you in place, freeze rays that freeze your pokemon to hold them in place, and bombs that slow you down. The bosses? Thunderous and Tornadus two ''legendaries'' that hit hard. Thunderous causes paralysis with all of it's attacks and Tornadus uses tailwind to buff everyone's speed! As you're fighting them you again have to deal with the ninja hindering your every move with three freeze rays and respawning cage traps making this a real headache to get through.

* CriticalDissonance: Critics gave this game series middling to negative reviews, but fans enjoyed the real-time action gameplay. However, with the latest entry ''Rumble Rush'' getting similar negative reception from critics and even fans seeing it as limited and repetitive, and the game being discontinued altogether after only a year online, this may indicate that the ''Rumble'' series is finally coming to a close.

** In Rumble World, the King Challenges get harder every time you complete them. To elaborate, you must have Toy Pokémon at the certain Power Level in order to perform well in the challenges (For example, the "Royal Quarterfinals" challenge requires you to have Toy Pokémon at 1200~, anything below that Power Level will be a real pain in the neck.)

* GoddamnedBoss: Sylveon in ''World'', due to its flunkies being [[MookMedic Audino]]. Audino's sole "attack" is that it heals the area around it, making Sylveon a pain in the ass if you're using something that only has close range attacks and you neglect to take out the Audino first. However, this also makes Sylveon the easiest (albeit most tedious) toy to collect, since it has essentially unlimited health, allowing you an infinite amount of time to attempt to wobble it for a guaranteed capture.